Trailers pulled by powered vehicles may be used to transport a variety of goods or materials, such as cargo, tools, equipment, vehicles, or livestock. Thus, many types of trailers have been designed for different purposes. These may include enclosed cargo trailers, flatbed trailers, boat trailers, vehicle trailers, livestock trailers, or dollies. Other types of trailers may be adapted to provide shelter, such as construction trailers or travel trailers. Trailers are typically attached to a powered vehicle using a hitch, which is used to tow the trailer behind the motor vehicle from location to location. The trailer may be detached from the vehicle by removing the trailer from the hitch.
Trailers are often a target of theft due to the value of the trailer itself as well as the value of items stored within the trailer. Hitch coupler locks are commonly used to prevent theft of trailers by securely latching a coupler onto a ball on the trailer hitch and locking the coupler into place. A coupler lock system locks a trailer to a vehicle hitch when the trailer is hitched to the vehicle and may also prevent an unhitched trailer from being hitched to a vehicle. However, hitch coupler lock systems generally use an exposed lock, such as a padlock, which may be cut by lock cutters or otherwise compromised in order to facilitate removing a hitched trailer from a vehicle and/or allowing an unhitched trailer to be hitched to a vehicle for the purpose of stealing the trailer. In addition, if the coupler or the latching mechanism of a coupler lock system fails, the locking system may be rendered inoperable. Further, coupler lock systems are used strictly for trailers having a coupler designed to be latched onto a ball hitch and thus cannot be used to prevent theft of a motorized vehicle, such as a car, motorcycle, recreational vehicle (RV), golf cart, electric conveyance vehicle (ECV), or similar types of vehicles.
Some attempts have been made to provide a security system for locking a vehicle wheel hub to prevent theft of the vehicle. In one known system, a keyed lock may be utilized to actuate a locking ring that locks a hub to an axle. The locking ring is operably connected to a cam attached to a lever that rotates in response to input from a key used to operate the lock. One potential problem with such a system is torque applied to the lock to actuate the locking ring, which may affect reliability of the system over an extended period of time.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for an improved system for locking wheel hubs in order to prevent theft of various types of conveyance vehicles.